Chef Pietro Vardeu—Sardinia native, restaurateur, and chef extraordinaire—is a busy guy. DiningOut Miami caught up with him recently as he made his rounds between Sardinia Ristorante in Sunset Harbor and the new Sardinia location in Delray Beach; we had a chance to talk about the Sardinian concept, his friendship with business partner Tony Gallo, and why Sardinia was so successful in Sunset Harbor before many restaurants existed in the area.
DiningOut: How did you and Tony [Gallo] meet?
Chef Vardeu: I don’t remember, to be honest with you. We’ve been friends for over 16 years, and business partners for the past 12-and-a-half.
How many restaurants have you two opened together?
A total of three, no four, actually. Sardinia in Delray will be the fifth one.
What drew you to the restaurant industry?
Like so many others, you move to a different country—in my case I moved to Atlanta in the U.S. when I was 16—and realize everybody else was in the restaurant business, so that’s where I started. I worked in a dining room and was a waiter, then I moved to the kitchen.
How did you come up with the concept behind Sardinia?
I moved to New York City in the early ‘80s, and everybody was opening Florentine-themed restaurants. Everything was Tuscan—the wine, the food. It was so hot. It was like that into the very early ‘90s. Then I moved to the Hamptons, and it was there that I opened the first Sardinian restaurant. I’m from Sardinia, and I built something different—from the bread to the suckling pig to the pasta. A lot of Italian restaurants pick a different name but the food is the same all over. So we brought a little change with the Sardinian concept.
What is your ideology on Italian cuisine, and why was it so important to introduce it to Miami?
Well, when I moved to Miami, it was 20 years ago. There were some Italian restaurants on the scene and some were good. But as I said before, they all had the same menu, the same pasta. It was nothing different from the Italian food I had in New York. So, after working for an Italian group over here in Miami, I decided to give Miami a Sardinian restaurant. I introduced the city to new cheeses, wine, bread, pasta, vegetables. When I say vegetables, I mean vegetables like radishes, fresh tomatoes, asparagus. Those are big staples on our menu right now.
When you opened Sardinia in Miami in 2006, there wasn’t much to the dining scene in Sunset Harbor. What drew you to that location?
When I decided to cover this corner, they told me I was out of my mind. Everybody was up in Lincoln Row—definitely the place to be. But I came here with my broker­—who was Tony’s fiancée and now his wife, Michelle—to show me this corner. So I was facing the Venetian Islands, the most beautiful islands, with people living there almost within walking distance. And on the right side, you have Sunset 1, Sunset 2, Sunset 3, Sunset 4 Islands. And in the corridor, the homes are between $30 and $40 million. That gives you an idea of the kind of clientele I can attract here. And that’s what has made Sardinia so successful from day one, because it was out of the tourist scene. I got local people.
Did it feel like you were taking a risk or a calculated chance?
Not really. Sardinia is a very famous spot in the summer. When people travel, they know about Sardinia. Before we opened Sardinia, we covered our outside windows with pictures of my island—especially the beaches. It was really beautiful, actually. The people kept asking, “When are you opening? When are you opening?” And then, we opened—it was Friday the 13th, and we sold a thousand steaks. Without any PR, without inviting anybody, we just opened the doors. And it’s been the same menu since day one except for daily specials. Most of my people—I employ almost 45 people in the dining room—have been working here since day one. You will be opening a new location in Delray Beach.
How did you decide on the new location?
The company that owns the new location also owns about 200 shopping malls around the country—mostly in Florida, upstate New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Puerto Rico. They approached us a year ago, asking if we were interested in putting a Sardinia in one of their malls, and I said why not? If everything goes good with the Delray location, they already have a second location in the works.
Will the new outpost differ from the original?
Same look, same design—all created by Tony. He and I design each restaurant ourselves; we never use any architects or anything like that. It’s actually going to open sometime in the fall. Same menu, then? Exactly the same. Same menu, same chairs, same tables. Nothing has changed. Same wine list. The only difference is that we have a nice open kitchen, a bigger one. We also have a wood-burning oven where we’ll cook all our steaks.
Happy dining!
By Christie Matherne Hall | Print Contributor